And while the city consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in the country thanks in part to a strong economy and tons of entertainment, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in Philadelphia. Some neighborhoods aren’t as great as others.

So the question arises, which Philadelphia neighborhoods are the worst, and which are the best?

Today, we’ll use science and data to determine which Philadelphia hoods need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Philadelphia area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the neighborhoods to be amazing, although City Center West ranks way above the rest.

We examined 56 of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods to find out the worst places to live. These places don’t quite measure up to Philadelphia’s reputation.

Here are the 10 worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia according to data:

How we determined the worst Philadelphia hoods

To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what places have the least amount of those things. We threw the following criteria into this analysis in order to get the best, most complete results possible. We used this set of criteria for each neighborhood in Philadelphia:

High unemployment (Less jobs)

Low median income (Less pay)

Low population density (No things to do)

Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)

High crime (Estimated)

Then, we ranked each neighborhood in Philadelphia for each of these criteria from worst to best.

Next, we averaged the individual rankings for each criteria into a “Worst Score”.

The neighborhood with the lowest “Worst Score” ranks as the worst neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Read on below to learn more about these terrible places around Philadelphia to live. Or skip to the end to see the list of all 56 neighborhoods ranked from worst to best.

This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased. Hold on to your pants.

1. Tioga-Nicetown

Source: Public domain

Population: 18,230Median Income: $24,201Median Home Value: $59,538

Nicetown-Tioga is a neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It comprises two smaller, older neighborhoods, Nicetown and Tioga, although the distinction between the two is rarely emphasized today. The name “Nicetown” is often simply used to refer to any part of Nicetown-Tioga.

2. Hunting Park

Hunting Park is a neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 2005, the 19140 zip code, which roughly consists of Hunting Park and Nicetown-Tioga, had a median home sale price of $39,650.

The Clara Barton School, Alexander K. McClure School, and Bayard Taylor School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

3. Alleghany West

Source: Public domain

Population: 19,321Median Income: $23,878Median Home Value: $46,204

Allegheny West is a neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia. It is named after an association formed by Pep Boys and Tasty Baking Company, among others, and the community bordering East Falls, Strawberry Mansion and Tioga-Nicetown. Its location in the vicinity of Allegheny Avenue on the western side of Broad Street.

Like many neighborhoods in North Philadelphia, Allegheny West is primarily a poor African-American enclave that has suffered post-industrial decline and disinvestment. It faced one of the largest population losses of any neighborhood in Philadelphia between the 1990 and 2000 census. Vacant industrial sites, such as those once used to build commuter rail trains by Budd Steel, have in recent years been used in film productions. The former Tasty Baking Co. food production facility is undergoing renovation as a mixed-use site; The former headquarters has been leveled to make way for a 75000 sq. ft grocery-anchored outlet mall.

4. Fairhill

Source: Public domain

Population: 27,912Median Income: $17,283Median Home Value: $52,850

Fairhill is a neighborhood on the east side of the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Fairhill is bordered by Front Street to the east, Germantown Avenue to the west, Allegheny Avenue to the north, and Cumberland Street to the south. The neighborhood serves as the center of the Hispanic community of Philadelphia, and is known for its “El Centro de Oro” commercial strip along North 5th Street. The neighborhood is also the center of the Philadelphia Badlands. Fairhill is adjacent to Harrowgate and West Kensington to the east, Hartranft to the south, Glenwood to the west, and Hunting Park to the north.

5. Strawberry Mansion

Strawberry Mansion is a neighborhood in the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, located east of Fairmount Park in North Philadelphia. The neighborhood is bounded by 33rd Street to the west, 29th Street to the east, Lehigh Avenue to the north, and Oxford Street to the south. As of the 2000 census, the neighborhood had a population of 22,562. It is often associated with the historic house of the same name, Historic Strawberry Mansion, located adjacent to the neighborhood and generally thought to be the source of the community’s name.

In 2005, the 19121 zip code, which contains Strawberry Mansion, had a median home sale price of $47,900. This was an 85% increase, the largest of any zip code in Philadelphia, from the 2004 median sale price.

6. Harrowgate

Harrowgate is a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States located immediately northeast of Kensington adjacent to Kensington Avenue. It is bordered by Feltonville, Juniata and Frankford to the north, Fairhill to the west, West Kensington and Kensington to the south, and Port Richmond and Bridesburg to the east.

7. Hartranft

Source: Public domain

Population: 13,133Median Income: $18,040Median Home Value: $66,569

Hartranft is a neighborhood in the central part of North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Hartranft is on the border of the predominantly Black central region of North Philadelphia and the predominantly Hispanic eastern region of North Philadelphia. Bounded by 6th Street to the west, Front Street to the east, York Street to the north, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the south. Bordering neighborhoods include Fairhill to the north, Kensington to the east, Cecil B. Moore to the west, and Olde Kensington to the south.

Most of the neighborhood is located in the 19122 zip code.

8. Haddington-Carroll Park

Source: Public domain

Population: 33,687Median Income: $24,228Median Home Value: $75,415

Carroll Park is a neighborhood in West Philadelphia. Its boundaries are Lansdowne Avenue to the north, West Girard Avenue to the south, North 63rd Street to the west, and North 52nd Street to the east. Along major streets of the neighborhood, the Carroll Park Community Council, Inc. has placed banners that say “Carroll Park: Where our neighbors become friends.” The 10 trolley runs along Lansdowne Avenue and the 15 trolley runs along Girard Avenue. There is a park by the name of Carroll Park between North 59th and North 58th Streets and West Thompson Street and West Girard Avenue. Carroll Park’s residents are primarily working-class and lower-income African-Americans.

9. Elmwood

Source: Public domain

Population: 24,576Median Income: $30,947Median Home Value: $96,341

Elmwood Park, also known simply as Elmwood, is a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It borders the city line with Delaware County at Cobbs Creek, and extends to the Schuylkill River. The Eastwick neighborhood borders it to the southwest, and Kingsessing borders it on the northeast.

Poles and Irish Americans had long been the majority in the neighborhood, organized around Catholic parishes established throughout the early to mid 20th century.

10. Frankford

Source: Public domain

Population: 38,061Median Income: $31,978Median Home Value: $85,968

Frankford is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Philadelphia situated about six miles Northeast of Center City. Although its borders are vaguely defined, the neighborhood is bounded roughly by the original course of Frankford Creek, now roughly Adams to Aramingo Avenues, Roosevelt Boulevard, and Cheltenham Avenue. Adjacent neighborhoods are Bridesburg, Kensington, Juniata, Oxford Circle, Summerdale, and Wissinoming. Historically, Frankford had an unofficial division separating Frankford from East Frankford encompassing the area east of Frankford Avenue. The division divided the community first along racial lines, with African Americans on the east of Frankford Avenue and Caucasians to the west. As the community has become less homogeneous, the division is more of a vestige of the past.

In 2005, the 19124 ZIP code, which roughly contains Frankford and Juniata, had a median home sale price of $81,075, an increase of 22% over 2004.

The ‘hoods around Philadelphia that are really hoods

Well there you have it — the worst of the neighborhoods in Philadelphia with Tioga-Nicetown landing at the bottom of the pack.

As we mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Philadelphia aren’t all bad. City Center West takes the cake as the best place to live in Philadelphia.

This is hilarious. Where did you get this information? This must be a road map for your investor friends. You can really tell you have no idea about Philadelphia or how to read a map? What made you put multiple communities together that are not together at all and closer / neighboring to other communities that you do not even mention? Where are you getting you research? Your intentions are not good.

I don’t understand this article I think it was flawed .They didn’t name the areas of the Cities properly and how was the study based and done on what crime income home value doesn’t mean it’s the worst or best what about Tacony ? Philadelphia in general is going down there’s trash everywhere and it’s not addressed I was outside of a dollar store and two children with adults came out and threw their candy wrappers on the ground along with the bag and I said by the way there’s a trash can right behind you and I was giving the middle finger sad sad sad. I am the renter and I care every year I plant flowers in the front of the house and keep the area very nice when I walk out my door and cross the street to a new Charter School there’s glass all over and trash and glass and trash in the park across the street in park….. I wish there was a way to stop the trash!!!! That alone would improve the neighborhoods

Where’s Mayfield ? Tacony, Northwood ? I’ve lived in the Fairhill section of North Philly most of my life (60+ yrs), there was never anything called West Kensington. Never heard of a section called Glenwood. Back in the day there were something called Phone Books, and in them there were maps of all the zip codes and their individual smaller neighborhoods. Now we have to listen to our local News Stations with newer reporters coming to town steadily, and they haven’t a clue where their reporting from, and they get it wrong, or even worse; they make it up, and the name sticks, even though it never existed before.